Improvement of toughness and water resistance of bioplastic based on wheat gluten using epoxidized natural rubber

Abstract

Novel blends based on wheat gluten (WG) and epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) were fabricated with different ENR contents of 10, 20 and 30 wt% in an internal mixer. Sulfur vulcanization was used to crosslink the ENR phase in the blends. Comparatively, blends of WG and natural rubber (WG/NR) were prepared in the same condition as the WG/ENR blends. Tensile mechanical properties and impact strength of the WG/ENR blends were investigated and compared with the WG/NR blends as well as pure WG. Moreover, water absorption of pure WG and the WG/ENR blends was also tested. As investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the results revealed more compatibility between WG and ENR compared with NR. The elongation at break, impact strength and water resistance of the WG/ENR blends were found to remarkably increase with respect to the pure WG. Thus, incorporation of ENR into WG could improve toughness and water resistance of WG. Furthermore, the effect of adding glycerol acting as a plasticizer on the mechanical properties and impact strength of the WG/ENR blends was also studied. The blends with glycerol-plasticized WG (WG-Gly/ENR) showed more homogeneous morphologies and superior results in the mechanical properties and impact strength compared with the WG/ENR blends.